UPPER WET SIDE
Broken main’s mayhem
A ruptured water main turned streets across the Upper West Side into rivers early Monday — while flooding basements, snarling traffic and crippling subway lines through the morning rush.
Firefighters responding to what they were initially told was a leaking fire hydrant on Broadway near West 63rd Street at around 5 a.m. instead found a flood running through the streets around Lincoln Center.
Emergency workers traced the torrent to a busted 3-foot water main, but struggled to stem the flow because the shut-off valves are located in manholes — which were, like many area streets, submerged beneath waters six inches deep at points.
“It’s crazy, you need a boat or something to get through,” moaned waterlogged commuter Michael Romero, 27.
By the time responders managed to stanch the waters some three hours after the break, much of the damage was done.
“My car!” one distraught woman yelled as she tried to run down the ramp into the inundated SP Parking garage on West 62nd Street, where several vehicles were caught in the rising tides. “Oh, my God!”
Service along the 1/2/3 line was segmented between Times Square and points south, and 96th Street and points north, with rush-hour commuters in between forced to find alternatives.
MTA crews labored throughout the day to pump some 500,000 gallons of water out of affected stations in order to restore at least some service by the evening rush.
But drivers will still feel the effects for days to come, as a stretch of Broadway will be torn up to replace the damaged main.
“We’re going to have . . . the west side of Broadway closed down probably for a few days as we open up the street and make repairs,” city Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Vincent Sapienza told reporters.
“It will likely take a few days to actually have that work done and the street restored.”